Arizona public power utility Salt River Project and Aypa Power on July 18 announced that they have entered into an agreement to provide 250 megawatts/1,000 megawatt-hours of new energy storage to the Arizona grid.
The Signal Butte energy storage project will be a 250 MW, four-hour battery energy storage system located in the Elliot Road Technology Corridor in Mesa, Ariz. The project will utilize lithium-ion technology and is scheduled to be operational by mid-year 2026.
Signal Butte was selected from SRP’s 2023 All-Source Request for Proposals process.
The project was jointly bid by Eolian, L.P., the original developer of the project, and Aypa Power.
The project will be owned and operated by Aypa Power, which purchased this late-stage battery energy storage project from Eolian, taking over the remaining development and construction required to bring this project into operation.
Once online, SRP will have full dispatch control of the storage system and will decide when to deploy the energy output onto its grid. The project will typically be charged when energy costs are lowest and will be discharged in the early evening timeframe when demand is highest.
SRP currently has nearly 1,300 MW of batteries and pumped hydro and 2,300 megawatts of carbon-free resources serving its customers. SRP also has significantly more solar energy and storage capacity under development that when operational by the end of 2027, will make nearly half of SRP’s generation carbon free, it noted.
Aypa Power is a Blackstone portfolio company that develops, owns, and operates utility-scale energy storage and hybrid renewable energy projects.
Eolian operates a portfolio of energy storage projects and develops and invests in renewable energy and clean molecule projects across the U.S.
